Paul von Rennenkampf

Paul von Rennenkampf (17 April 1854-1 April 1918) was a general of the Russian Empire during the Boxer Rebellion, Russo-Japanese War, and World War I. A Baltic German noble, he was a 40-year veteran of the Imperial Russian Army, and in 1918 he was executed by the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution.

Biography
Paul von Rennenkampf was born on 17 April 1854 in Konuvere, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire to a family of Baltic Germans, and in 1882 he graduated at the top of his class from Nikolaevsky Military Academy in the capital of St. Petersburg. In 1899 he was made a Major-General, and in 1900-1901 he led Imperial Russian Army troops in Manchuria during the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion. In 1904 he was wounded at the Battle of Motien Pass during the Russo-Japanese War, and after the 1905 Battle of Mukden he began a lifelong rivalry with general Alexander Samsonov, who accused him of not giving him assistance against the Imperial Japanese Army. During the 1905 Revolution he put down rebellions in Siberia and suppressed the Chita Republic, and he was nearly assassinated many times by rebels. In 1912 he took over the Vilno Military District, and at the start of World War I he took command of the Russian 1st Army during the invasion of East Prussia in the German Empire. He won the Battle of Gumbinnen on 20 August 1914, but at the 29 August Battle of Tannenberg the Russian army was destroyed with 100,000 losses and Samsonov shot himself. After the November 1914 Battle of Lodz he was dismissed, partly due to his ethnic background, which led to Russians accusing him of "treason". In 1917 he was arrested by the Russian Provisional Government for embezzlement and mismanagement, but after the October Revolution that same year he was set free. Later, the Bolsheviks offered to give him command of an army, but when he refused, Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko had him executed.